NEW YORK — As Jimmy Butler lay on the floor of Madison Square Garden, writhing in pain, kicking his legs in discomfort, a whole franchise held its breath. Two, even, as the New York Knicks could ponder their future. This was the one vision the Heat could not endure. They have already taken so much this season, stomached so many injuries, and still rebounded, still kept going, somehow and some way. This was the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, who barely scraped into the playoffs and then slayed a giant. Their appearance in this Eastern Conference semifinal is, in one way, ineffable and, in another, simple. They have Jimmy Butler and in the playoffs that tends to be enough.
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Now, with five minutes and five seconds remaining in Game 1 of what is likely to be a tense series, even Butler was no given. His right ankle rolled and Miami’s future skipped a beat. The Heat had already lost Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo and still dispatched the Bucks in five games of an opening-round series. But the loss of Butler would be a loss too much to overcome. Playoff Jimmy has become legend, and it did not peter out Sunday afternoon.
Butler walked off after his injury, then limped back on to take the free throws he had earned in a collision with Josh Hart. Then he stayed on the court. It was a sight as gutsy as it was understandable, emblematic not only of the Heat star but the whole franchise. Butler has become one of the NBA’s best through guile and determination, and he toughed it out against the Knicks, too. He barely moved on offense, crouching in the corners as the Heat played offense without him, practicing his shooting form as Gabe Vincent dribbled out precious seconds. He touched the ball just twice, and took one hasty shot when the ball reached him under duress. He rotated away from the ball when he was asked to defend, staying in the game by keeping out of it.
Still, his legend continued to grow and this surprising Heat run kept on apace. They beat the Knicks 108-101 Sunday, taking a 1-0 lead in this second-round series after undoing a 12-point first-half deficit and finishing off the win with Butler barely able to help. It was a testament to a team that has made it here unexpectedly, losing key players, relying on a slew of former undrafted free agents, and finding comfort in the hands of past-their-prime All-Stars. It was Vincent, who had 20 points, and Kyle Lowry, with 18 off the bench, who finished off the Knicks.
“We’ve been through a lot this entire year,” coach Erik Spoelstra said afterward. “We’re not being insensitive to when guys get nicked up or get hurt, but our group has learned to compartmentalize and focus on the task at hand. That’s what it was. There wasn’t an overreaction. We’ve had enough tears behind the scenes with guys getting hurt and stuff like that. We have to get the job done. We’ve had probably more practice than anybody else having to step up when guys get hurt.”
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Spoelstra was just as shocked when Butler got hurt as anyone else. Television cameras found the coach mouthing one word in response. It has four letters and slipped off the tongue with ease and Spoelstra’s lips weren’t hard to read.
This series, which was supposed to turn on the status of one ankle, will now turn on the health of another. Spoelstra had no update and Butler declined to talk to the media. How he feels, and whether he can keep on playing, looms large.
The Game 1 loss felt like a blow to the Knicks. They were without Julius Randle, the All-Star forward who had a sprained left ankle of his own, but controlled the game early on. Then Butler went to work and Lowry found new life and the Heat wore the Knicks down. This roster, held together by unlikely success stories and two All-Stars and now athletic tape, chopped down another opponent.
Kevin Love threw three outlet passes over the top of the Knicks’ defense, then joked to new Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, sitting courtside, that he had the best QBR in New York. Love was out of the rotation in Cleveland this winter and just got to Miami after hitting the buyout market in February. On the last day of April, he was part of a frontcourt that slowed Mitchell Robinson and the Knicks on the boards, and kept them from running roughshod on second possessions as they had in their wins over the Cavaliers in the first round.
Vincent has turned into one of the few playmakers the Heat have left on offense, a quick-trigger 6-3 guard who took eight shots in the game’s first nine minutes. Five years after he went undrafted out of UC Santa Barbara, and three years after the Heat plucked him on a two-way contract, he has given Miami shooting and life. His off-balance 3 with 4:24 remaining helped the Heat pull away.
But Lowry was the closer. The old lion who showed he still has something left in him. It wasn’t just the 18 points, or the fading baseline jumper with 2:53 left that iced it, he was a model of veteran moxie, baiting Hart to cause a five-point swing at the end of the first half and stripping RJ Barrett on a drive with two minutes left in the fourth.
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“He’s just an absolute winner,” Spoelstra said. “When you need it most, that’s when he’s going to show up. At this point in his career, when this place was electric, this is all that Kyle wants.”
The Heat needed it all.
With Butler hampered but still on the floor, the Knicks tried to punish him but just couldn’t. Three times over the last five minutes they tried to get him involved in actions but Butler switched out twice and watched Barrett commit an offensive foul on the other.
The Knicks didn’t continue pressing the issue. They were down three when Butler rolled his ankle and were down 10 a little over two minutes later. Love was a little surprised the Knicks didn’t try to find Butler more often when he came back in.
“Yeah, a little bit,” he said. “But we just need to get out of here alive. I think they feel the same way, getting Julius back healthy as well. So again, it’s gonna be a long series and just getting that first one was great for us on the road.”
The game came as advertised. Gritty and deliberate, the work of two hard-nosed and brilliant coaches. Spoelstra said he expected “a cage fight” and he got one.
While the Knicks ran out to an early lead, their ballooning confidence receded. They missed shots by the dozens, the kind of 3-point marksmanship more appropriate for the late ’90s games that served as the nostalgic backdrop of this meeting. They misfired on 27 of 34 3s, and the Heat nailed just 13 of their 39 tries. Hardly beautiful but it was exhilarating in its own way. Much as Madison Square Garden tried to give the Knicks a leg up, the Heat battled back, pushing and prodding until the Knicks had atrophied too far, with Jalen Brunson short on answers, Barrett’s hot start cooling off and Randle watching from the bench.
Butler was a force with 25 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, and two steals during his 38 capable minutes, and out there enough during the five he played through the pain.
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Spoelstra hardly wavered in letting him play with the injury. He just needed to know Butler would make it.
“I know him; I know that I can look in his eye,” Spoelstra said. “He reassured me that he wasn’t going to be a liability and he wanted to stay in there and make sure we get this win. That’s the most important thing. We’ve had a lot of chaos, a lot of things going on, but the main thing being the main thing. We got to secure and get the win, and then we’ll figure out what happens in the next 48 hours.”
Theirs is a relationship built on trust, and forged over four long seasons. They work in understandings and hard-headed agreements.
And in situations like these, the Heat seem to work on muscle memory. A team that has learned how to respond to adversity, and in the spring cast off its regular season shell.
The state of Butler’s ankle will now be under heavy watch. He gave no indication of how he felt. Normally so loquacious, he chose to stay silent following the game. Instead, once the country music was muted and the locker room cleared out, Butler walked off into a Madison Square Garden elevator, his plush purple winter coat draped over him, and a series riding on each ginger step.
(Top Photo: Elsa / Getty Images)
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